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Sam Merten

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Dallas' Next Mayor Will Face Tough Budget Choices. Too Bad The Candidates Won't Talk About Them.

Welcome To The Dull House

By Sam Merten
Apr 14, 2011

The group of mayoral hopefuls—the police chief, the politician, the CEO and the long shot—agree on just about everything. Raising taxes is naughty. Natural gas drilling should be allowed only if science proves it's safe. Neighborhoods are kick-ass, though it's unclear whether anyone can be found who's anti-neighborhood. Former Pizza...
A Tourists Guide to a Dozen Dirty Deeds by Dallas Cowboys

By Sam Merten
Feb 3, 2011

The Dallas Cowboys are known for a lot of things: eight Super Bowl appearances, the hottest cheerleaders in sports, the grandiosity that comes with being held out as "America's Team." But no Dallas welcome would be complete without a map that guides Super Bowl fans to some of the locales...
Observer's Unofficial Visitors Guide to Dallas Stuff or How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Super Bowl

By Mark Donald, Sam Merten, Robert Wilonsky, Andrea Grimes, Daniel Hopkins and Patrick Michels
Feb 3, 2011

Be Our Guests We're Getting the Hell Out Anyway On behalf of the Host Committee For Pimping Out the Super Bowl, it is our great pleasure to welcome you to Dallas. It seems as though we have been waiting forever for you (and your debit cards) to get here. That's...
Bill Fisher handed the FBI a chance to clean up City Hall. Does that make Fisher Mr. Clean?

By Sam Merten
Jan 27, 2011

The scene could have been lifted from any of a dozen cops-and-robbers movies: Nervous crooks and an undercover informant gather for a secret meeting. The bad guys are suspicious. Someone—they just know it—is wearing a wire. Tension mounts. Things look bleak for the wired-up hero. Bill Fisher knows that scene...
Do the Rangers' New Owners Have the Money and Will to Build on a Winning Formula?

By Sam Merten
Dec 2, 2010

On a Sunday afternoon in July, Cliff Lee sits alone by his locker in the Texas Rangers' clubhouse. A handful of his teammates have gathered a few feet to his left around the lockers of Ian Kinsler and Michael Young, joking and chatting, but Lee, dressed in a gray Rangers...
Love and Money: New Airport Concessions Deal Gets Pricey.

By Sam Merten
Oct 28, 2010

Love and money: When a divided city council voted in August to open up bidding to all comers for food and retail concessions at Love Field Airport, City Hall probably hoped it'd heard the last of a fight that pitted Mayor Tom Leppert and white council members against minority council...
Running on "bubble gum and duct tape," a new court aims to keep damaged vets out of jail.

By Sam Merten
Oct 7, 2010

If Carlos Melendez has mental problems, that's news to him. Sitting on a wooden bench outside State District Judge Mike Snipes' courtroom, the 20-year Air Force veteran can't explain why exactly he was accepted as an inaugural member of Dallas County's veterans court—the latest so-called "specialty" court aimed at preventing...
On Love Field -- Or Anything Else -- Carolyn Davis Ain't Got That Swing.

By Sam Merten
Aug 26, 2010

Gotta Love it: Here's a little vocabulary note for city council member Carolyn Davis: One of the definitions of the verb to "swing" is "to influence decisively." For instance, the "swing vote" is the vote that decides an issue's outcome. Ergo, you can't have a 13-0 vote and call one...
The Texas Rangers Thrive while Owner Tom Hicks' Sports Empire Crumbles.

By Sam Merten
Jul 29, 2010

Maybe going bankrupt is the best thing that's ever happened to the Texas Rangers. On the field, at least, 2010 is shaping up to be the team's best season since 1999, the last time the Rangers made the playoffs, when they were sent packing in the American League Division Series...
Just How Minority Does a Minority Have to Be Around Here?

By Sam Merten
Jul 1, 2010

Majorly strange: Thanks to another delay by the city council, the question of whether to open up bidding for all the food and retail concessions at Love Field won't be decided until August 11. That's fine with Buzz. We get to poke around this subject for another month. Who knows...
The Battle Over Airport Contracts Opens a Rift Between the Mayor and Minority City Council Members.

By Sam Merten
Jun 17, 2010

Gilbert Aranza darts down two flights of stairs from the offices of Star Concessions Ltd. into Dallas Love Field Airport's main lobby. "It's my daily exercise," the 57-year-old explains as he shoots by an elevator on the third floor and then skips an escalator ride on the second, "and a...
GOP County Commish Ken Mayfield Offers Help to a Dem

By Sam Merten
Apr 8, 2010

Bipartisan: Nothing whets our political appetite like rumors of alliances between Republicans and Democrats during election season. So when we heard that Republican Dallas County Commissioner Ken Mayfield was helping Democratic candidate Beth Villarreal in her campaign against Precinct 5 Constable Jaime Cortes, Buzz thought we'd won the lotto. A...
Was County Judge Jim Foster Really the Disaster His Own Party Claimed. Maybe, Maybe Not.

By Sam Merten
Mar 25, 2010

Despite its stunning view of downtown Dallas, the patio outside the bar at the Belmont Hotel in Oak Cliff is lifeless. That may be because it's a Tuesday night, but had Jim Foster's political fortunes been different, there could just as easily be music blaring, drinks flowing, and politicos and...
In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

By Sam Merten
Feb 4, 2010

Robert O'Donnell stands rigidly in the courthouse hallway, his arms folded across his chest, trying to keep his rage in check. Like some Americans, O'Donnell is fed up with big government, but his simmering anger has nothing to do with Wall Street bailouts or health-care plans. After more than six...
State Representative Terri Hodge's Campaign Disappoints by Offering a Good Reason for Odd Petitions

By Sam Merten
Jan 7, 2010

Good grief: Buzz just loves shenanigans, so it's no wonder we found ourselves roped in by claims from Eric Johnson's campaign that some of the petitions attached to state Representative Terri Hodge's ballot application didn't pass the smell test. It appeared as though Hodge, who submitted 610 signatures from registered...
Houston Mayor Bill White is Running for Governor. Unless He Isn't. We Think.

By Sam Merten
Nov 26, 2009

Around we go: He doesn't have Governor Rick Perry's awesome, awesome hair. He doesn't have Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's statewide name recognition. Plus, he's a Democrat in what remains a GOP state. So, does Houston Mayor Bill White have a real shot at becoming the next governor of Texas? Maybe,...
No, You Do It: The GOP Finds Yet Another Candidate Willing to Run for D.A.

By Sam Merten
Nov 19, 2009

Stick it: The last time the Dallas Observer wrote about the troubles facing a local political party trying to draft a solid field of local candidates, it was August 2006, and our target was the Dallas County Democrats. We accompanied the story—subtly headlined "Party Poop"—with a picture of the exploding...
Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison Are Locked In A Pitched Battle Over The Soul Of The GOP. They Are Also Running For Governor.

By Sam Merten
Nov 19, 2009

As temperatures dip into the low 80s, providing a brief respite from the searing September heat, a crowd of people enter the side entrance of the Jewish Community Center in North Dallas. Perhaps the pleasant afternoon weather is bashert, Yiddish for "meant to be," as the local Republican Jewish Coalition,...
Texas GOP Shifts Even Further Right With New Chair Cathie Adams

By Sam Merten
Oct 29, 2009

Adams' family: If you didn't notice when Texas Republican Party chair Tina Benkiser stepped down last month to join Governor Rick Perry's re-election campaign as a senior advisor, you're forgiven. Buzz didn't pay it much attention either. But when the State Republican Executive Committee recently elected radical right-winger Cathie Adams...
How the Feds Convicted Don Hill

By Sam Merten
Oct 15, 2009

It's been described as the largest federal corruption case in the history of Dallas, but you wouldn't know it from the paltry number of people who observed the three-month trial. Most days former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and the other four defendants, their legal team and the jury...
Dallas' Homeless Turn To The Bridge for Food, Shelter and a New Start

By Sam Merten
Aug 27, 2009

A silver bracelet dangles from her wrist as she clasps her cell phone in her left hand. She wears sparkling gold sandals, which reveal freshly painted maroon toenails. Her black sleeveless blouse and pressed blue jeans look recently laundered. Denise Way looks nothing like the stereotypical homeless person—soiled, weathered, beaten...
More Cops Means Less Service?

By Sam Merten and Patrick Williams
Jul 16, 2009

Dallas two-step: Buzz has been a crime victim four times in Dallas: one car break-in, two break-ins of a shed and one home burglary that cleaned us out. The number of times Dallas police have been at our house? Zero. Now, Buzz is a realist, so we understand that the...